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beforehand and determined on, from high moral and religious motives, 
became in 1848 the regenerator of the Florist, and therein a leader in 
the present improved tone of piety, of science, and of gentlemanly 
feeling in horticultural publications. Any one who will take the trouble 
to compare the difference of spirit and language characteristic of the 
two periods, before and since that date, will see what is meant, and how 
much in this respect the public has gained by the labours of the de¬ 
ceased, and of those who wrought in a like spirit. Of course, it is not 
implied that all is due to one man, nor even that the chief place is due 
to the periodical of which he was nominally the superintendent really 
the proprietor. This is willingly admitted, to belong to that Titan, the 
Gardeners' Chronicle, which, like another Hercules, could have 
strangled serpents even when it was in its cradle. But it is affirmed, 
that the time, labour, and expense were deliberately undertaken with 
that fixed purpose, and the Florist having been placed at the head of 
its class, was effectively carried on until the close of 1850, when the 
concern was transferred, with all its high purposes, to those able and 
more practised hands, which, under brighter auspices, and in a higher 
state of social requirement, are now so worthily fulfilling its mission. 
Edward Beck was no common man. Commencing life as a sailor, 
and passing long afterwards from the command of a merchant ship to 
that of a merchant’s counting-house, he showed an aptitude for busi¬ 
ness, which was general and not merely special. Indeed, in intuitive 
sagacity, and in perception of character as well as of circumstance, some 
anecdotes of him recall to mind the doings of higher personages, who 
produced greater results in the world. For instance; his gardening 
establishment was large and expensive, his glass houses being numerous, 
much more so than they have been of late years. His head gardener 
did not give satisfaction, not for want of honest desire to please, but his 
heart wns not in his work, and therefore that work did not prosper as 
it ought. The master did not want to dismiss the man, but things 
must be altered. He had seen in his groom an interest in garden 
matters, little things that would have escaped the notice of a more 
ordinary observer; and to their own surprise the men were retained, 
their offices were exchanged. And the consequence was eventually 
seen in an improvement in both departments. And the so-made gardener, 
after a faithful and brilliant service of some years, became, and is now, 
a leading florist and seedsman in the neighbourhood of London. More¬ 
over, the facts of his establishment in that position, honourable alike 
to master and man, are a practical lesson of the way to secure faithful 
and willing service. Yet he was a strict, almost a stern, disciplinarian 
and inspector, as all really good managers of men are. But those who 
were connected with him quickly felt that they had to deal with a 
man of high sterling principle, who carried a sense of duty equally into 
comprehensive commercial speculations, and the minutest matters of 
detail. 
No doubt much of this arose from natural disposition. But the true 
force of his character was due to the pervading principle of religion, 
which in him was in the best sense that of the Bible. He was a thorough 
disciple of his crucified Saviour. Tjiough he belonged to the Society 
